1930s -STRUGGLING OUT OF ADVERSITY WITH STYLE AND EXCELLENCE

THE CHRYSLER BUILDING
NEW YORK CITY

It is true that THE GREAT DEPRESSION, which began in 1929, never really ended, rather, World War II began in 1939 and consumed the world economy , and almost everything else.

Nevertheless, struggling through the horrors of mass unemployment and crumbling economic activity, the Western World in particular steadily picked itself up and patched its spirit together - even if it could not find the right formula for restoring the economy to health and vigour.

We can see this recovery of spirit in the images of the time. At the head of this Post, we see the ever beautiful Chrysler Building completed in 1930 in New York City. It has become a symbol of that brilliantly resurgent spirit, even though it had been commenced in 1928. In 1993, my wife and I were staying at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York  City(trying to exorcise the memory of our 1986 visit when we had to stay in the City's second-worst hotel The Aberdeen - another story) and we had a room looking out to The Chrysler Building - what a joy!

CHRYSLER BUILDING - EXULTANT DETAIL

The Art Deco style which was also born in the 1920s became the characteristic style of the 1930s. It was evident across the board, in architecture,transport, art and advertising and attire.One of the leading demonstrations of this, and one which also became iconic was in railway transport and it was The Twentieth Century Limited :

1930s ICONIC IMAGE

Like most streamlined Steam Locomotives, the streamlining was applied to an existing group of locomotives. The named train dated back to 1902 and was already well known, but the streamlining in 1938 brought about its iconic status. The design styling was done by Henry Dreyfuss. The New York Central Railroad gloried in the standing of its premier train. They maintained an extremely fast service covering the 960 miles between Chicago and New York at an average of the magic ( Mile a Minute) 60 mph! The train was handsome coming or going:

......or going......

A few years earlier, in fact, the British had introduced an even faster train the Silver Jubilee of 1935, picking up on the Royal Silver Jubilee, running between Newcastle and London at 67.4 mph average over 270 miles. The A4 Class Locomotives of the London and North Eastern Railway were designed and built as Streamliners under the masterly hand of Sir Nigel Gresley.

THE SILVER JUBILEE in 1936

But the recovery spirit was also notable at sea. In this element, British design fell short of the leadership one might have expected. The Queen Mary, completed in 1936,  still came across to those in the Dominions beyond the Seas as the greatest ship in the World. But that was because the Imperial propaganda machine was so good. It is plain now, for everyone to see that the French ( with the Italians, masters of design excellence) with the absolutely beautiful, stunningly elegant S.S. NORMANDIE had produced the 1930's and perhaps all time's finest ship:

S.S.NORMANDIE ENTERS NEW YORK HARBOUR
IN TRIUMPH AFTER WINNING THE COVETED  BLUE RIBAND
1935

NORMANDIE IN NEW YORK - WOWING THE LOCALS
AFTER WINNING THE BLUE RIBAND FOR THE
FASTEST ATLANTIC CROSSING 1935


But Normandie's excellence extended to the realm of art as well - nothing was too good for this great ship as the image below illustrates:

Design excellence sans Frontieres

Sadly, S.S. NORMANDIE was destroyed by fire in New York Harbour during the War as she was being gutted for troop carrying. The fire was a complete accident as an oxy-acetylene torch touched a huge curtain. The fire spread quickly. In their zeal to put out the fire, the U.S. authorities put so much water into the NORMANDIE that the great ship rolled over at her berth and sank alongside.

Automotive design moved unevenly, but spectacularly during the 1930s. Consider the following :

1931 STUTZ LE BARON SEDAN

The Stutz Le Baron of 1931 is not very far advanced from the cars of the late 1920s, but it makes a good benchmark for the beginning of the decade. Everything is there: Trunk, Mud Guards, Running Boards, Headlights, Radiator, Side opening Bonnet, Wire Wheels, Spare wheel on Mudguard.

1938 JAGUAR SS SEDAN

The 1938 Jaguar SS shows that in England not a great deal had changed, except that, true to its name, the Jaguar has adopted a very feline stance and seems poised to pounce, but all the elements are preserved save the Spare wheel on the Mudguard.

"In the East, the sun climbs slow, how slowly,

But Westward look! The land is bright!"

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861)

And westward, across the Atlantic how true it was :

1938 BUICK WITH STYLE

The Trunk is now what we call the Boot, the Mudguards are tending to unity with the body, if not always completely there yet, the Headlamps survive but likewise, we can see their fate is fast approaching, the running boards are merely vestigial, but the side opening Bonnet appears safe as yet. Nevertheless, the ensemble is something altogether different from the Stutz and the Jaguar which are clearly old-fashioned. Modern times are here! Depression or not!

Back East in Germany, the Maybach suggests people have been concentrating on other things:

1938 Maybach D58 ZEPPELIN Sedan

The 1938 Maybach Zeppelin from Germany is an almost complete design throw back to 1931, the only concession to modern times lies in the flow of the Mudguards, the Spare wheel Metal covers and the disc wheels, though there is a boot. Minds were obviously on other things.

But, in Merrie England, where the Government was still preparing its defence plans on the basis that there would be no War for 5 years(!!), excitement was the order of the day when Vauxhall introduced the thrill a minute 1938 Ten-Four!

 What can we say? Sadly even this small windscreen is divided. Is this not Modern? Well...... look: a Boot, vestigial Running Boards, Rear Mudguards fairing into the Body, drilled Disc Wheels and, well, that's your lot for 1938 (and more than a decade to come though no-one could know!):

In the sky a miracle of modernity created a true revolution. No more, bi-plane, no more string and wire, there arrived on the scene the Douglas DC 3 of 1935:

It was a marvel of modern design and excellence in performance and reliability. Hundreds went into service and transformed Civil Aviation. No-one knew, but they were witnessing the birth of the aerial workhorse of the coming World War when thousands of these planes would be around the globe carrying troops, paratroopers, equipment, ammunition and supplies generally. They were to perform remarkable feats of difficult service and endurance. They would be known, in the military version as the Dakota. And their familiar engine drone was always re-assuring except to our enemies in their homelands. They were the Aerial success story of the 1930s, and for that matter of the 1940s.

The human spirit was sorely tried by the Great Depression, but through it all at some levels, hope shone through. It found expression in many ways as we have seen and produced a great deal of excellence. It was soon to be tried even more and further by World War II, which was to be transformative in many ways, not all for the good. But much that came out of that conflict better, had its origins in the better elements of the 1930s struggle against adversity.

SOME THINGS IN COMMON Part II b

NIGERIA

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND  PRE -MODERN 

NIGERIA TOPOGRAPHICAL

The historical background of Nigeria is infinitely different to that of Australia because of the geographical realities. Though moderate in size by Australian standards, Nigeria is only part of a much greater whole - Africa  - which could swallow Australia two and a half times. We can easily identify substantial evidence of developed human settlement across most of Africa and certainly in Nigeria. 

But Africa sits on the "doorstep" of Europe, which has driven much - though not nearly all -of the development in much of the world. Unlike Australia, Africa was not "to be found" or in any sense "lost". Nor did it seem in any way unworthy of attention like Australia. Rather, it demanded attention!

By virtue of its immense reality in size, exotic riches in animal, plant and human activity. Africa could not be denied or even ignored, without peril. At different times it posed threats with its Carthaginians, who competed with, and invaded Europe, and its Barbary Pirates who raided Roman and later colonies and trading activities. But most of this interaction took place on and from the Mediterranean coastline, whilst at the Eastern end, it involved the exotic, ever troublesome Middle Eastern Kingdoms.

Through much of this evolution, what is to-day Nigeria, remained largely responsive only to African external stimuli. The earliest external trading influence came from North African Carthaginians with whom, from about 400 B.C. according to Herodotus, these pre-Nigerians were trading gold, metal, cotton and leather in exchange for copper, salt, textiles, beads and horses. In fact, since about 1,000 B.C. these people had been producing iron and creating metal artworks and such weapons as axes and arrowheads. From around A.D. 700 Mohammedan Slave Traders, using the overland route into the West of sub-Saharan Africa, entered the scene. These traders were Arabs.

So modern-day Nigeria was, from a very early period significantly impacted by foreign intervention in the form of the Mohammedan Slave Traders. But this was not invasion. No. These men were traders. they came and went away with their wretched human purchases.

With whom did they trade? Without doubt Chiefs and others who had access to prisoners, tribal captives defeated in war AND their own traditional slave population. It would have been an impossible task for the slave traders to have mounted an invasion force, take it across the Sahara, find, fight, defeat and make captive potential slaves. No. They bought them from those who already held them in their African homeland, and were thus free to take them away to market across the arduous Saharan route without let or hindrance or fear of loss.

They were not racially prejudiced in this business. They gladly enslaved very many Europeans in the same period but in total numbers only a fraction of the African trade. Why?  Simply, European slaves were not available, they had to be caught - taken prisoner in battle or in piratical raids on shipping. It is thought that in total the number of European slaves would have been approx. 1.5 Millions. Many of the European slaves were bought back with funds raised by pious societies in Europe. The traders remained content - they had turned a profit. 

 Their African activity lasted for 1,000 years from the inception of Mohammedanism until the arrival of the Europeans. But this arrival did not herald a deliverance from slavery. No. All that changed was the direction in which the slaves were sent, the mode of transport and the type of slaves required. For the Europeans sent them by sea across the Atlantic to the Slave Markets of the Americas and the Caribbean instead of the overland trail of misery to the Mohammedan Slave Markets of Cairo, Tripoli, Algiers and Morocco. In addition, the Mohammedan Slave Traders had sought roughly two female slaves to every male slave, as they wanted many females for concubinage and domestic service. The Europeans, on the other hand, sought the reverse of those proportions – two males to every female, for they were looking for workers for the cotton and sugar plantations and the mines more than domestic servants.

It is very difficult to truly appreciate the extent of this great human tragedy. We are accustomed to being sickened by the thought of 4.5 Million to 6 Million Jews dying in the Holocaust. But in this protracted horror, the trans-Saharan Slave Trading Mohammedans carted away between 8 and 17 Millions of people. It should not be thought that their dealings were limited to this part of West Africa. On the contrary, their activities in West Africa were overshadowed by their dealings in East Africa which were enormous and often seaborne.

When we reflect on this phenomenon, we are driven to cry out "How did this go on?  For a thousand years!"  It is not hard to see how it might have begun. After all, the sale of captives in war into slavery was simply a part of life in the ancient world be it European, Middle Eastern, Asiatic or African...it was normal.   But, we are inclined to see that this was something entirely different. as different as normal grazing and sale of cattle is, to feed-lot raising and export. Yet these are human beings - men and women - who in the normal course would strenuously defend, and resist intrusion upon, their personal freedom. 

NIGERIA - ETHNIC MAP

What structures in the African societies inhibited resistance to all this? Or prevented an overthrow of such a monstrously evil situation?  Was it the case that the evil of those in control was just so monstrous that for a thousand years it suppressed the human spirit so completely as to reduce the populace to mute acquiescence? Could that really be so?  

Even in the ruthlessly efficient and totally pagan Roman Empire, we have the example of several Slave mutinies - not least that of Spartacus which lasted for two years and finally took eight Legions of the Roman Army under Crassus to suppress. Apart from the thousands of slaves killed in battle, Crassus crucified another 6,000 -lining the Appian Way from Capua to Rome with their crucifixes.

Could it have been the case that in some way the practices and beliefs of traditional religion - "odinani" and its variants had been used/abused to condition the people to accept this situation? Whatever the case, the result was certainly diabolical and seems logically improbable. 

The answer is not often, or ever, made explicit. But it becomes obvious as we examine the patterns of governance which had evolved throughout pre-Nigeria over the centuries. If we cast our minds back once more to contrast the Australian situation, we find that as the people of pre-Nigeria were commencing their trade with the Carthaginians in 400 B.C. the aboriginal people of Australia were hunting their next meal. 2,100 years later, when Captain Cook arrived in pre- Australia, they were still hunting their next meal. Meanwhile, in pre-Nigeria, a vast history of governance, war, trade, art and invention had taken place and a very active international trade across the Atlantic was being carried on with the Portugese, the British, the French, the Spanish and the Dutch.

Across pre- Nigeria we find a highly- evolved pattern of governance and organisation. There is not much point in trying to penetrate the mists of time to go back too far. But let us choose the convenient date of 400 B.C. We can plainly see that the society which began trading with the Carthaginians must have been self-confident, organised and stably- governed in order to initiate and sustain the production of gold etc. and the trading activity. As we move forward in time, we find clear evidence of numerous de-centralised self-governing cities in the sub-Saharan  Sahelian grasslands. These cities were significant and assertive and governed the trans-Saharan trade. Later still, we see the Ghana Empire arise. From around A.D. 400, it became quite substantial until succeeded by the Sosso in 1230 and the later Mali Empire. Under Mohammedan influence, the Songhai and the Sokoto Caliphate came into being. The Songhai’s collapse led to the formation of a number of lesser kingdoms.

To the South, and in and around the Niger delta, there developed several forms of governance among the remarkable Igbo peoples. These included several kingships and a much more extensive web of independent groups of villages with what might be called a republican style of government. In this perhaps surprising pattern of government, control on a day to day basis rested with a council of elders, but full power rested with consultative councils of all the people from the network of villages. The living operation of the system even as late as the arrival of the colonial British is well shown in the novels of the late, great Chinua Achebe. But there were Igbo kingships. Prime among these for influence, though not rule, was the Eze Nri (King of Nri) who was in effect a Priest-King with responsibility for the determining of matters arising from the sevenfold Taboo system which influenced all of the Igbo native religion – odinani and its variants. Apart from the Eze Nri, there was in the later stages, the Arochukwu Kingdom and the Kingdom of Onitsha.

The Benin Empire became by the mid-1400s a very significant political force and the fortifications of its capital Benin were formidable and among the largest man-made structures in the World. It was not a major trader in slaves, but very active in trading pepper, ivory, gum and cotton cloth. It included in its embrace Dahomey which was notorious for its barbarity- including in some years- at the whim of its King - the mass beheading of over 100,000 slaves at the Annual Custom events.

Also significant in the area of present-day Ghana was the Ashanti Empire.

What we see over the entire region is a varied pattern of strongly developed and governed states. Inevitably their multiplicity led to wars. These wars produced victors and vanquished and the vanquished very often became slaves in the traditional manner. In the times of the Mohammedan Slave Traders – that long period of 1,000 years, this activity was sufficient to feed the trade in slaves.

But the arrival of the European slave traders and their requirement for far more male slaves to satisfy the demands of their particular markets seems to have created an accelerated demand which by all accounts, led to a growing number of wars essentially designed to generate supplies of slaves. In this war-making, the Arochukwu Confederacy became prominent.

SUMMARY

In considering this Historical Background, we come to a puzzling issue: how is it that whilst slaveholders and slave traders and slave carriers - all European are rightly condemned and despised, slave makers and slave vendors - all African - are not a subject for consideration or comment, let alone condemnation? How could these men SELL their brothers into often (but not always) cruel slavery? Worse still how could their evil activity go uncondemned, or even unconsidered? Or am I missing out on something? I want to understand.

Is it in any way connected to the fact that there are to-day hundreds of thousands of Slaves within Africa? - Mali alone has 200,000, and Mauretania up to 600,000 all of these are legal in these Mohammedan States. There does not seem to be any continent-wide move to free them.

There is no real comparison in the historical background of Australia and Nigeria up to the pre-modern period. In our next section - the Historical Background - Modern Period

, we will see broad similarities, striking differences and different results. 

SOME THINGS IN COMMON Part IIa

Early Colonial Painting

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

AUSTRALIA

The Earliest occupants of Australia we can establish were the Aboriginal people. They lived a nomadic existence, with no settled towns or villages, some customary places for rituals, some rock art, stone axes and arrow tips and spearheads and dug-out canoes. Accommodation was bark lean-tos. There was no "Government" in any civilised sense and no clothing except loin coverings at times -bark or hides, and hides used for warmth. There was no farming or grazing. Hunting and gathering was the rule and prevented any significant advance in their society, in this generally harsh environment. Upon their first contacts with Europeans who arrived in their sailing ships, they are said to have regarded the ships as something like birds, and their strange, pale occupants as either spirits or "gods" of some sort. In time, they came to value some of the possessions of these creatures, especially those for which they had a use - knives, axes.and the like. (N.B. Of late, this classical assessment of the facts has become touched by controversy. A man named Bruce Pascoe, who has made varied claims about being of indigenous ancestry, and has won an Award as an indigenous author, has written a book entitled "Dark Emu" in which he claims that Aboriginal Australians, far from being "hunter-gatherers" were accomplished farmers and fishing experts as well as bakers and the originators of democratic national Government. unfortunately for him, his rather surprising claims are based on his account of what is contained in the published reports of colonial explorers Charles Sturt and Thomas Mitchell. His references to these works have been shown to be, inter alia "egregious deception". Not only that but his own claims - varied as they are, to be of Aboriginal ancestry have been shown to be baseless since professional genealogy has traced his ancestry on paternal and maternal sides back to........ENGLAND! The matter has been thoroughly examined in the website:https://www.dark-emu-exposed.org/ And is further concisely demolished in the book "Bitter Harvest: The Illusion of Aboriginal Agriculture in Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu"https://quadrant.org.au/product/bitter-harvest/)

The numbers of Aboriginal people at the time of European arrival can never be known, but the general consensus seems to be that there might have several hundred thousand over the entire continent. But if that were so, one might have expected very much more extensive contact than actually occurred.

European exploration could have begun as early as the 1500s. In 1515 the Portugese arrived in Timor and in 1515 Portugese Dominican Friars established a mission there. 

Timor is only 610 Kilometres from Australia. It beggars belief that, having come around the mighty coast of Africa and across the Indian Ocean, they would not have tried to reach the fabled "Great South Land of The Holy Spirit" which their maps conjectured must exist -just to balance up the Globe! 

There was a complicating factor to consider before talking about any such activity: the Treaty of Zaragoza complementing the Treaty of Tordesillas,  in dividing up the world between Catholic Spain and Catholic Portugal , by the Bull of Pope Alexander VI with demarcation lines passing through the Pacific and part of Australia, and the Atlantic respectively. Whilst Timor was just in the Portugese sphere of influence, the most fertile and attractive part of Australia as it was to become known, was in the Spanish sphere. It would not have been in the relative interests of Portugal to make known anything it had discovered in the "Spanish sphere of influence."

The great fire and tsunami which destroyed the Royal Library of Portugal in Lisbon on All Souls Day 1755 - following a massive Earthquake -   destroyed any records of such exploration which we might have hoped to find. The only possible clue is the wreck of a "mahogany ship" which is reputed to appear and disappear in shifting sands in Armstrong Bay in South Western Victoria. Despite three Symposia on the subject, no conclusion has been reached.

Then, the Protestants got the idea that they would make an effort to find this "Terra Australis".

Willem Janzsoon

The first of these folk seems to have been a Dutchman Willem Janszoon who, in the ship DUYFKEN of the Dutch East India Company, sailed into the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606 and made landfall on the Western  Shore of Cape York in what is now the State of Queensland. 

 This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian mainland.He charted 320km of the coastline, thinking he was recording the Southern coast of New Guinea. The land was swampy and ten of his men were killed by hostile natives, so he abandoned the unpromising expedition. He returned to Australia in July 1618 and landed on what is now believed to have been North West Cape of W.A. - he assumed it was an island without attempting to circumnavigate it.

THIS REPLICA OF DUYFKEN IS A REGULAR VISITOR TO AUSTRALIA

Shortly after Janzsoon's landfall in the Gulf of Carpentaria, a Portugese working in the Spanish Navy, Luis Vaz de Torres sailed through the Strait that now bears his name, proving that New Guinea was in fact not connected to Terra Australis.

Dirk Hartog (there are several spellings of both names) (1580-1621) was the next of the Dutchmen. He commanded a Dutch East India Company vessel and in 1616 landed on what is now called Dirk Hartog Island off Shark Bay 800 Kms North of present-day Perth W.A. and the most Westerly point of the Australian mainland. Hartog found "nothing of interest"!

Another Dutchman Frederik de Houteman turned up near Perth W.A.in 1619 but nothing came of that. Then in 1628, there occurred a singular and dramatic contact - the Dutch East India Company's brand new ship "BATAVIA" Commanded by Arianen Jacobsz was wrecked on the W.A. Coast on Morning Reef near Beacon Island part of the Houtman Abrolhos. This was a major event which is very well documented in books, magazines and even a TV Documentary. Of her 322 Passengers and Crew, 40 were drowned and 282 survived for a time. However, a bloody mutiny took place and at least 100 people died in the process. A rescue ship from Batavia was sent out to find BATAVIA. The story gets incredibly complex with further murders, trials, executions and, in the end, only 68 people returned to Batavia.

REPLICA OF THE BATAVIA

In 1642 another Dutchman Abel Tasman ( 1603-1659) of the Dutch East India Company discovered Tasmania (the Island State South of the now Australian mainland, as well as New Zealand and Fiji.  He returned on a second voyage in 1644 and named the mainland "New Holland".

Some measure of relief from this flood of Dutchmen was provided in 1688 when the English adventurer William Dampier arrived in King Sound W.A. He had already had quite an interesting life sailing in merchant vessels to Newfoundland and to Java before joining the Royal Navy in 1673. He fought in two battles against the Dutch but was invalided out after a catastrophic illness. For several years he did various activities in Jamaica and Mexico. But in 1679 he fell in with the Buccaneer Captain Bartholomew Sharp on the Spanish Main of Central America and was involved in a series of piratical activities which resulted in a circumnavigation of the globe. In 1683 a privateer (British licensed Pirate in effect) John Cooke engaged Dampier to round Cape Horn and raid Spanish possessions in Pacific South America. At its peak, this successful adventure consisted of ten ships. Cooke died and the Pirate crew elected Captain Charles Swan to take his place in command of the CYGNET which Dampier joined. They sailed on, raiding Spanish possessions in the Asian Pacific area. In 1688 Dampier was commanding a second privateer ship when he anchored in Shark Bay W.A.  After many hazardous adventures, Dampier returned to England with the journals of his goings-on and a tattooed slave whom he exhibited on a travelling exhibition whilst his journals were being printed.

WILLIAM DAMPIER

His book " A New Voyage Around the World" was a publishing sensation even attracting Admiralty interest. In 1699 he was given command of H.M.S. ROEBUCK a 26 Gun Frigate and a mission to explore the East Coast of what the Dutch had named New Holland (now Australia). Travelling via the Cape of Good Hope (it was too late in the sailing season to attempt Cape Horn) he returned to Shark Bay in August 1699. From there he sought to follow the coast North East but ended up North of New Guinea and out into the Bismarck Archipelago of Pacific Islands. ROEBUCK was by now in very poor condition and though he was in fact only 100 Kms from the East Coast of New Holland he was forced to turn back. The ship foundered at Ascension Island in February 1701. Dampier and his crew were rescued by an East Indiaman and reached England in August 1701. He was Court Martialled for cruelty to one of his officers and found guilty.   Subsequently, he was given another naval command and fought against the Spanish until finishing his service in 1707. In 1708 he was again engaged as a Privateer and circumnavigated the globe for a third time, but died in 1715 in substantial debt.

The Dutch were to have one last fling in this direction when, in 1696 - three years before Dampier's last visit to Shark Bay, Willem de Vlamingh visited what is now called Dirk Hartog Island and found the Pewter Plate Hartog had left as a record of his discovery.

93YEARS OF DISCOVERY

We see then, an intense period of exploration from 1606 to 1699 - 93 years of people, mostly Dutch, seeking commercial advantage out of finding and exploiting -if possible - the "Great South Land" all of which came to nothing.

It is interesting to note that there was never any attempt to take slaves from Australia. (Though we shall later see that there was for a time a cruel trade in importing "Kanaka" supposedly indentured labour from the Pacific Islands.) The absence of any such slave trade seems to reflect two factors - no great numbers of natives in evidence and /or natives thought unlikely to be saleable. I doubt that it was moral virtue on the part of the explorers, as the Dutch were actively involved in the African slave trade at the expense of the Portugese.

But the high point of Dutch maritime and trading influence was reached in the late 1600s. The expanding influence of England and her Royal Navy over time saw the Dutch Empire repeatedly under attack and still later the French assisted in that process. Colonies were lost, regained, lost again, regained in a bewildering series of wars, treaties and international mayhem. But at the end of it, all the vitality of the Dutch Empire was diminished and that of the British Empire was on the rise.

UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT WAS ABOUT

We have observed the trade obsessed Dutch coming to see what the Great South Land had to offer - not much for their tastes! Not even decent slaves. For the Spanish no overly-obvious Gold. Who is up next?

In the ensuing years, the French, arguably builders of the finest and fastest fighting ships of the days of sail, and quite fine sailors were pre-occupied with domestic political issues. Philosophical considerations arising out of the so-called Enlightenment, fed into civil dissatisfaction arising from years of bad French harvests in the mid-1700s and the national financial burdens following the 7 Years War ending in 1763 (fought against a coalition of the British, Prussians and Portugese), and involvement in the American War of Independence against the English. All of this culminated in 1789 in the French Revolution.

Despite all of the turmoil, and more still to come, in the subsequent Napoleonic Revolution, the French did maintain some exploration activity. In 1756 the King - Louis XV -  had despatched de Bougainville to look for the Great South Land. However, after reaching South America and the Falklands, de Bougainville and his crew of 400 Frenchmen found themselves in Tahiti surrounded by hundreds of canoes laden with Polynesian beauties and tarried for a while finally claiming Tahiti for France.  It is believed that he almost encountered the Great Barrier Reef on Australia's East Coast and he turned North to avoid being dashed against the rocks. He ended up in the Pacific Islands, his crew suffering from Scurvy and had to head for safety in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies before heading home.

In 1772 King Louis XV had sent two further exploratory missions, one led by Dufresne who actually did some exploration on Tasmania and had contact with the native people there for a few days. After some of his crew were killed by New Zealand Maori warriors he retreated to Mauritius.  The two ships constituting the second expedition became separated in a severe storm and one returned home, The other, commanded by de St.Alouarn sighted Cape Leeuwin in W.A. and sailed North to Shark Bay of Dutch and Dampier fame. 

The French expeditions were characterised by a distinctly scientific character in their staffing - a fact which has left us a rich fund of journals, charts and illustrated scientific works.

Enter the English

"Perfidious Albion" is the insult often hurled at the English in international affairs. One of the early uses of a similar phrase was by the great French Bishop and Preacher /Theologian Jacques-Benigne Bossuet who referred in a famous sermon to " L'Angleterre, ah, la perfide Angleterre" ("England ah treacherous England"). 

Lieutenant James Cook R.N.
Captain of H.M.Bark Endeavour

(he later achieved the Rank of Captain.)

In the case of the mission of Captain James Cook R.N. and the Bark ENDEAVOUR, the description was well-justified. Ostensibly, the mission was intended to observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti. He left in 1768 and arrived in Tahiti after rounding Cape Horn, in 1769.  But he had other orders - he was to find and examine the east coast of the Great South Land.  

Cook was already a renowned Navigator and Cartographer since his youngest days in Canada fighting the French. He found the South-East corner of the Australian Continent on 20th April 1770 and sailed northward up the East Coast identifying the good harbour of Botany Bay which he named, making the first landfall on 29th April 1770. He later observed a little to the North but did not enter, the majestic harbour now known as Sydney Harbour which Cook noted could readily accommodate 100 Ships of the Line at anchor. Far on to the North on the Queensland Coast, his ship ran aground, but he got her off, careened her at what is now Cooktown to effect repairs, then completed his mission via Batavia, and the Cape of Good Hope - a circumnavigation achieved.   
The British goal at this stage was not trade, but a military penal settlement on the Great South Land and then to see what would evolve.  

Cook's own published report and those of the well-connected Sir Joseph Banks - Botanist and Member of the Royal Society - excited great interest in popular and official circles. American Independence denied England her Penal Colonies in America. Cook's discovery acquired fresh interest. He was sent on a second mission from 1772-1775 to define the limits of the Great South Land as far as possible. A third mission from 1776 - 1780 completed the task in greater detail but sadly resulted in the death of Captain Cook in Hawaii, after retrieving some valuable instruments stolen by the natives there.

Not only a brilliant Navigator and Cartographer, Captain Cook was a prudent, thorough professional who paid very careful attention to the health of his crews. Only in the last stages of his onerous third voyage can one detect some fraying of his judgement of issues and events under the great strain of years of command at the extremities of the Earth.

H.M.BARK ENDEAVOUR REPLICA

In 1787 Captain Arthur Phillip R.N. and his Fleet of ships containing convicts, soldiers and supplies had set out, and they arrived in Botany Bay in mid-January, 1788 to set up a Penal Colony.  Phillip determined that the better location would be Sydney Cove, now in Sydney Harbour but a severe gale delayed the move until 26th January 1788 - giving us the annual date of AUSTRALIA DAY.

Early French depictions of Australian Aboriginals were captive to the the popular ideal of "the noble savage"  - the idea that if only there had been no "civilisation" Man would have developed in an ideal social and physical state. It was as unrealistic as the early English paintings in Australia featuring soft Northern Hemisphere light and gentle landscapes

Amazingly here at the end of the world two French ships under the command of La Perouse arrived two days earlier on 24th January. Polite , even good relations developed between the two groups, with exchanges of visits and mutual assistance with supplies. La Perouse did not sail away until 10th March and before he did he committed to the British some of his Journals and Charts which were subsequently published in France. La Perouse and his ships were never seen again. 

The last words attributed to King Louis XVI before he was guillotined in the course of the Revolution were: " Is there any word of M.de La Perouse?" Poignant indeed, within moments of his own cruel death.


The whole pattern of English early settlement in Australia whether on the mainland or in Tasmania or offshore on the infamous Norfolk Island,  was one of military administration of a Penal Colony. It was left to the few free settlers,  freed convicts and discharged soldiers to pursue and develop trade in their own interests. It would be some time before the "Mother Land" awoke to the trading potential of the "good for nothing but convicts", Colony.

SUMMING IT UP

In reviewing all of this history, I have come to a new appreciation of the energy and enterprise of the few free, and many more freed convicts who, in their own interests, developed what became Australia. The Dutch and Spanish had no use for it, the English Government saw it fit only as a Penal Colony. The newly-freed men and women saw it as their home (after a time) and cherished the freedom and climate it provided. No longer the grim misery of class-ridden , gloomy Georgian England but rather the bright sunshine, limitless land, fresh air and promising prospects beckoned them to try to make a new life, to find a new way. And, strangely, it was the very efficiency of the British administration that made it all achievable - military security, civil law, and frequent sound Government gave them what they could never achieve at "Home" in England. 

Those born in Australia came to proudly call themselves "Cabbage Tree Hat Lads" for the hats they wove out of the Cabbage Tree foliage. It was a neat contrast to the English -born "Pommies" - a derogatory term of uncertain origin but said to have referred to their ruddy complexions (like the pomegranate) .

To come from this unpromising beginning to be the 13th largest economy in the World and the 24th largest Exporting Nation in the World is nothing short of remarkable.

SYDNEY COVE 1791

Through all this, she remained Capital poor - debt was essential to development. 

Australia has become a lucky country, yet she suffers a serious lack of freshwater and an almost total lack of oil. But, unknown to those early exploring European powers, she concealed vast treasures of gold, silver, copper, zinc, diamonds, coal, natural gas, iron ore, alumina, bauxite, and with careful husbandry the capacity to produce enormous crops of wheat, and other grains, sugar,  fruit and vegetables and to produce vast quantities of very fine wines and dairy products as well as wool from sheep and meat from sheep and cattle, that awaited only the development of refrigerated shipping. More recently that same industry and resourcefulness have made her the educator of hundreds of thousands of students from Asia, and an active participant in international aid programmes and co-operative defense initiatives. It is a continuing and impressive story.

THE NEXT STAGE

In Part II b. I shall look at the awesome historical background of the other great country - Nigeria - looking for any common factors, similarities and dissimilarities. What, if anything, can be understood from looking at the two countries experience side by side?

SOME THINGS IN COMMON PART I

MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES 

AUSTRALIA POLITICAL AND TOPOGRAPICAL

Landmass :7,682,300 Sq. miles 7th Largest in World

Population :22,751,014 July 2015 Est.56th Largest in World

NIGERIA  TOPOGRAPHICAL

LANDMASS   910,768 SQ.MILES        32nd Largest in World.

Population  : 181,562,056    July,2015 Est.   8th Largest in World

TO BEGIN:  

I have a large number of Friends on Facebook in Nigeria, and of course in my home country of Australia too.

Our two countries are very different in many ways, yet in some ways, they have faced, and do face some similar problems, although the sum of the problems of each is very different.

Please bear with me as I try to sketch out some comparative facts, trying to see in which areas, if any our mutual understanding can increase. In this exercise, not only human physical and activity differences are relevant, but also, to some extent, historical experience and present-day circumstances.

Fundamental Realities

Australia is, as you see very large and sparsely populated with 2.96 people per sq. mile. Most of these people are located much more densely in large coastal capital cities and a larger number of near coastal provincial cities. Australia is located in the South-West Pacific Ocean on the East Coast,  and the Eastern Indian Ocean on the West Coast. 

It is a country with a maritime perspective and psychology - even though that fact is not widely considered by, most of its people.

Nigeria is not nearly so large - in fact it is close to the size of the State of New South Wales where I live. But its population density is enormously greater with 199.35 people per sq. mile. But, according to statistics available to me, 68% of Nigeria's population lives in "Rural" areas, including towns with a population of 100,000 or less

On the other Hand:

 15.1 % 0f the urban population lives in Lagos City. 

That leaves                

84.9% 0f the urban population living in provincial cities and it seems that only three of these:

Kano, 
Ibadan and
Abuja (the Capital) exceed 3,000,000 
with a total population of 9,826,068 between them. 
                                       
They are followed by 7 Cities of more than 1,000,000                                                (for a total of  17,673,140), and

 62 cities between 100,000 and 900,000 population( for                                          a total of   15,561,046 between them).  

Gasp! Already the figures are, to this Australian, mind-boggling! 

But, let us see: that makes in total an urban population of  :
58,160,254 or 32% of the national population.

This means that 123,401,802 people live in Rural areas in Towns under 100,000 and in villages and they constitute 68% of the population.
 (Just to get back to our comparisons, that is far more than five times the total population of Australia.)   

Geographically, Nigeria is in West Africa with an Atlantic coastline on the Southern Coast of West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It shares land borders with Benin to the West, Niger to the North West and North, Chad to the North East and Cameroon to the East.   

So we see immense differences in consequence of population density and geographical location.

Yet, even in these differences, some elements of similarity can be noticed, Both Countries suffer large areas of inhospitable land. In Northern Nigeria there is the problem of large areas of the Sahara desert intruding - and that reportedly expanding. In Australia, the greater part of the Country is inhospitable desertified by the lack of reliable, or any, natural water supply.

Geographically, Nigeria's land borders are a source of trouble from overland intruders, even though its relations with the cross border nations are not often actively hostile.   Australia's situation is not as isolated as one might think, and the relative proximity of the mainly Mohammedan Indonesia with its hundreds of islands and its hostile takeover of half of New Guinea to our North is a source of intermittent trouble - mainly through the Indonesian laxity (corruption) in allowing illegal immigrants ("boat people") mainly from the Middle East -Mohammedans) to pass on toward Australia. This has been stopped by firm Australian Naval patrols. Our relations with Pacific Island States are generally good because of our foreign aid grants. Our next-door neighbour to the East is New Zealand, with which we have generally good relations and strong sporting rivalry. 

Economic Activity

Australia is rated

12th or 13th in the World by GDP measured in USD Dollars depending on which list you choose, based on figures varying between 1.223 Billions and 1.471 Billions depending on the reference dates- always complex in these matters. Nigeria is rated between 

22nd and 24th on the same basis on amounts varying from 493 Billions to 568.499 Billions.

GDP PER CAPITA

Obviously on a GDP per Capita basis, Australia will fare much better than Nigeria. For Australia, the ranking is between

 10th and 16th in the world based on amounts of USD 45,926 through to  USD 65,400  again depending on the date chosen, but also exchange rate variation and major commodity prices.

 Nigeria ranks between 

121 and 129 based on amounts of USD 5,911 and USD 6,400 again depending on dates chosen and exchange rates and major commodity prices.

In international trade, Australia is ranked in USD  

24th in the World for Exports at USD 191.2 Billions. 

Nigeria is ranked    

40th at USD 93.010 Billions.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

In international trade, Australia is ranked 

20th for imports at USD 245.9 Billions ( based on 2014 Est figures). 

Nigeria is ranked 50th at USD 54.6 Billions (But this is based on 2012 Est Figures)

The value of Australian Exports FELL by AUD 318.7 Billions in 2014 whilst actual volumes INCREASED by 6.6 per cent. This was mainly due to declining values for minerals and fuels exported down 13.8% ( a large fall) but greatly offset by rising values in rural, manufactures, other goods and services especially - thus cutting the overall decline in values to only 3.8 %.

Unprocessed Minerals accounted for 28.2 % of export AUD values, their AUD value having declined 21 per cent in the year 2014/15. Fuels accounted for 18.1 % of the AUD Export values despite an 8.6 % decline in AUD values in 2014/15.

 The value of Australian Imports in AUD actually INCREASED by 0.7 % while volumes INCREASED by only 0.1% - so we see adverse currency values at work.

It is noted that Nigerian Exports consist of Crude Petroleum: 74.3% of the Total and Petroleum Gas: 13.3% of the Total , the two energy commodities totalling a massive 87.65% 0f the Total Exports.

OVERALL TRADE PERSPECTIVE

We see both Countries are significantly dependent on commodity export earnings. But in the case of Nigeria, the dependency on only two fuel commodities is at an extremely vulnerable level of 87.65%. On the other hand, in the event of a marked turnaround in global economic activity, Nigeria should reap a rapid unearned improvement in income from these same exports. There seems no great hope of that in the immediate future.

In the case of Australia, a broader spread of Export types has led to greater resilience in handling a very difficult decline in minerals and fuel Sales and values. Likewise, a marked turnaround in global economic activity would rapidly deliver a huge unearned improvement in income from these same exports. But a significant vulnerability is the Australian dependence on trade with China, which Country has become a recognised military security risk. However, this issue is tempered to a large degree by China's dependence on Australia as a relatively near, politically-stable, low-cost source of high-quality raw materials.  

DEBT

We should consider this factor which restrains Government policy and National potential from the National Accounts aspect and then the International aspect. This is easier for me regarding Australia where I am more familiar with accessing the official figures which appear at regular intervals on a consistent basis.

The National Accounts figures are of interest on two bases :

in absolute numbers,and

in relation to the GDP.

AUSTRALIA : DEBT - ABSOLUTE NUMBERS;

At 22nd January 2016 : 405.988 AUD BILLIONS 

                                 (2010 : 147.122 AUD BILLIONS)

                            : DEBT - PERCENTAGE OF GDP    

                              In 2015                               36.8%

                                    2010                              2o.5%  

Comment

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 can be quickly seen to have had a strong adverse effect on the Australian National Debt situation as the Federal Governments of the day borrowed heavily to sustain economic activity. Radically different views are held about the wisdom of the level of the borrowings and the purposes on which the funds were spent.

From 2007 to 2013 Australia had Labor Governments under Prime Ministers Rudd to 2010 Gillard to 2011 and again Rudd to 2013. The effect on the debt absolutely and as a percentage of GDP is obvious. Since 2013 Liberal/National Party Governments have been in power., under Abbott to 2015 and now Turnbull at least until 2nd July,2016 Federal Election. The returning Conservative Government has found it difficult to correct the situation in view of policies committed to funding in the Labor years and the marked collapse in Export revenues. 

NIGERIA              National Debt         Absolute Numbers

2015                      USD     $56.74 Billions

2010                                     $26.273Billions 

                                   National Debt         As a Percentage of GDP

2015                                        10.19 %

2010                                         15.04%

I am far less confident in the above Nigerian figures since I have had to collect them from varying sources - all respectable in themselves, but lacking consistency in approach.   However, it does seem that from the period when Pres.Goodluck Jonathan assumed office in 2010 from U.M. Yar'Adua (2007-2010), until he handed over to Pres.Buhari in 2015, although the National Debt rose markedly, it was responsibly done in terms of GDP relationship which declined to historic lows. Since the Buhari administration has taken over, it appears GDP has collapsed and debt in Absolute Numbers has increased as the economy has collapsed, so that Debt to GDP can be expected to have soared once again.

FOREIGN DEBT

Australia              Foreign Debt              In Absolute   Amounts

  Mar. 2016                             AUD $1,012,100,000,000 

             2015                             AUD $1,620,000,000,000

Comment

This enormous sum is owed approximately 25% by Australian Governments Federal and State , and 75% by public and private companies. Most of it Government and corporate is denominated in Australian Dollars - minimising any foreign currency exchange risk. In addition , most of the debt is very long term, minimising the repayment burden. Finally, due to huge and continually growing Superannuation investment, Australia has greater investments in foreign assets than foreigners have invested here - this is a reversal of remote historic trends. In effect, much of this foreign debt at low-interest rates has been used to invest overseas at very good rates of return.

Nigeria                 Foreign Debt                 In Absolute Amounts  

2015                                          USD        9,700,000,000     

                                                   

                                                                    (GDP is  USD  492.986,000,000  ) 

Comment  

The vastly healthier Nigerian position, reflects the conservative stance of the Johnathan Government, and the different historical necessities imposed by Australia's more advanced economy over a long period of time and its very heavy defence commitments in actual Wars in support of our Allies , in extensive defence re-equipping and in very heavy foreign aid to neighbouring Asian and Pacific Island States. 

The Nigerian situation would be the great envy of the Australian Federal Treasury.

FOREIGN RESERVES

Australia                USD $ 49,264,000,000   MAR 2016    Rank 37th  

Nigeria                    USD $ 26,500,000,000   MAY 2016     Rank 50th

Comment

Given Nigeria's relatively smaller GDP it has performed far better in retaining Foreign Reserves at the level it has, and this again seems to be a reflection of the past conservatism shown in Foreign Debt obligations compared to the Australian approach, again because of differing imperatives.

SO FAR

On a very , very storm tossed day I have worked on this to this point. I have also made a good start on the Historical Background - but I have decided to make that Part II.    

I have even refrained from summarising the above, though I am tempted to do so.  But I am hopeful of some feedback that might make that summarisation more accurate and meaningful and useful to someone, somehow.  or have I laboured in vain?